The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

'Kryptonite' discovered in Serbia

Superman chooses new holiday destination

Cloud storage: Lower cost and increase uptime

A new mineral whose composition almost exactly matches that of Superman-felling kryptonite has been unearthed in Serbia by mining company Rio Tinto. The mineral was identified by researchers at the Natural History Museum, and Canada's National Research Council.

Mike Rumsey, mineral curator at the Natural History Museum, explains that when the team had worked out the structure of the mineral, sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide, they typed it into Google to see whether anyone had classified it already.

The first link returned by the search engine was to a Wikipedia entry on kryptonite, specifically a label on a box of kryptonite in the movie Superman Returns.

He says it was very exciting because very few new minerals are discovered - between 30 and 40 every year.

However, because the mineral is actually nothing to do with Krypton, it can't be called kryptonite. International nomenclature rules are strict, and the substance will officially be called Jadarite. As well as missing out on its showbiz name, the mineral is not a radioactive green crystal, but a rather ordinary looking white powdery substance.

As for kryptonite's potentially superhero slaying powers, Rumsey is not worried: "It probably won't do superman, or us, any harm whatsoever," he said. ®

Customer Success Testimonial: Recovery is Everything

Latest Comments

Present and correct...

I'm one of those fabled woman who reads El Reg but I think I’ll wait for further empirical evidence before I accept your classification as being ‘the spitting image of Brad Pitt.’

Especially if you’re basing this on information from Wikipedia!

0
0

Jadarite!? What an uninspired name.

You would think that if he was going to trumpet the whole superman/kryptonite connection he could have come up with a better name. Even if he couldn't use kryptonite, he could have come up with something that would have been a superman reference.

Something like Jorelite, Kalelite, or Luthorite wouldn't have been that hard to think up.

.

0
0

Scu asked: 'You're looking for the type of "lady" that reads El Reg?'

Hey I've seen 'The Net' and Hollywood tells me that there are legions of Internet whizzes who just happen to be women looking like Sandra Bullock. Where else, but el Reg would they get their computer news?

I rest my case.

0
0

More from The Register

Boffins find evidence Atlantic Ocean has started closing
'Embryonic subduction zone' that flattened Lisbon headed for Blighty
Google launches broadband balloons, radio astronomy frets
A careless Loon could blind the square kilometre array
 breaking news
You've seen the Large Hadron Collider. Now comes the HUGE Hadron Collider
International Linear Collider ready to rock and roll
Headbangers have a gas, gas, gas in mosh pits
Boffins say heavy metal crowds behave like The Vapours
Hubble spies unlikely planet being born in hostile neighborhood
Hoovering a cloud of sand 7.5 billion miles from a tiny star
 breaking news
Jaguar to open new car-making factory in Blighty (virtually)
Britain still makes stuff, it's just not real any more...
New material enables 1,000-meter super-skyscrapers
Before you read on, see if you can guess how the new stuff will be used
 breaking news
China's second woman 'naut blasts off for coupling in HEAVEN
Wang and pals test the cosmic waters for Chinese space station
Scientists investigate 'dark lightning' threat to aircraft passengers
One stormy flight could give lifetime radiation dose
 breaking news
Chinese 'nauts prep for next coupling in Heaven, clear way for new station
Second woman taikonaut and pals test tech for China's own orbiting platform